Nepal’s exotic Parsa wildlife reserve

• Sushant Lama

Parsa Wildlife Reserve is a famous protected area in the Inner Terai region of Nepal. It covers an area of 627.39 sq km in Parsa, Makanpur and Bara districts and ranges in altitude from 435m to 950m in Siwalik Hills. It was established as a wildlife reserve in 1984 but later in 2017 it was converted into protected areas and now has the status of a National Park. The reserve headquarters is located at Adabar on the Hetauda-Birjung highway.

Main Attractions

Parsa Wildlife Reserve safari is the main thing to do here in the National Park due to the presence of a vast amount of flora and fauna. Safari is a rare opportunity to experience the nature and culture of Nepal’s Terai region. Before the Parsa wildlife reserve was converted to a protected area, it used to be a hunting ground of the animals with a large population.

Parsa Wildlife Reserve consists of tropical to the subtropical forest with subtropical monsoon climate. 90% of the forest is composed of Sal and other plants like Chir, Pine, Khair, Sissoo, and silk cotton tree.

There is the presence of animals like a wild elephant, Royal Bengal tiger, leopard, sloth bear, gaur, blue bull, wild dog, etc. Other common animals include chital, hog deer, barking deer, langur, striped hyena, jungle cat and many more.

It is a paradise for bird watchers as there are more than 500 species of birds in the reserve like white-breasted kingfisher, Giant pied hornbill, peafowl, large racquet-tailed drongo, red jungle fowl, golden-backed woodpeckers, paradise flycatchers, and other common birds.

Due to hot tropical climate, various kinds of snakes like King cobra, common cobra, banded krait, rat snake, rock pythons, etc are found.

Due to the presence of high degrees of plants, animals, birds, and snakes, it is one of the best places for conducting research too.

Climate

Skies are clear with pleasant temperatures in winter (October – December). During spring (January – March) Temperature rises a little bit and water resources dry. During summer (April – June) days are hot and humid with temperature up to 40°C. There is plenty of rains in Monsoon (July – September)

How to get there?

Parsa Wildlife Reserve is one of the easiest places to reach due to Kathmandu- Hetauda- Birgunj highway passing from its entrance gate. You can reach Parsa National Park with a 6 – 7 hours’ drive in Bus from Kathmandu. A flight to Simara from Kathmandu takes about 15-20 minutes and from Simara it is 15 minutes drive to reserve headquarter in the vehicle.